Tokyo to Tohoku 2026 (AKA how many honeymoons is too many?)

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 5 (Part 2):

After navigating some pretty windy and snowy roads we were on the hunt for an onsen, and Oyu Onsen was on our route. The town has a few public baths which didn't look too appealing so we thought we would try our luck with the large hotel in town, Hotel Kazuno, which looked to have some nice baths.

We arrived and I ran up to the desk to ask if public bathing was possible and the Japanese bell lady could not have been more helpful. We quickly paid for the onsen and towel rental and headed in to have them basically to ourselves. I'll attach a photo below from the website which was pretty accurate to the day we visited, albeit with so much snow around!



After a while a few locals rolled through for their arvo soak and chat so I took that as time to leave. We changed and explored the hotel a little. Turns out it is actually on a list of Japans top 100 Hotels/Ryokans. It was a stunning hotel which would be amazing to stay at however it's a bit far from most ski areas except Hanawa which is really only used for a lot of ski racing.




A particular cool feature for mine was the old school weather display next to reception. It felt very bubble era Japan.



After this it was time to head to Morioka, which was only about 90 mins away. It was a pretty uninteresting drive primarily on the Tohoku Epxressway, a road we spent a lot of time throughout the trip.

We arrived about 6:30pm and checked into Art Hotel Morioka. Unloading was a bit crazy as we had gear everywhere from the first day on snow but we eventually got settled and parked the car in the adjoining parking lot. The room was fairly recently renovated and quite comfortable with enough space for all of our stuff and a pretty good view too!





We unpacked a little and given the time were absolute starving for a feed so headed out from the hotel.

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Day 5 (Part 3):

We headed out into the snowy Morioka night in search of food and drink. Art Hotel is a super conveniently located a short walk from Moriokas entertainment area and not all that far from the station and its precinct.



We headed in the direction of the entertainment area, the Odori area. While searching for food we came across and Irish cough TexMex styled bar so popped in for some Guiness and local craft beers.



The couple who ran the place were super lovely so we had a chat with them in our poor japanese with some help from google translate. Another place I would definitely recommend if in Morioka, especially if you're into craft beers as they carried a particularly impressive local selection.

After a couple of drinks we headed back out into the night in search of yakiniku.




We found a place called Yakiniku Kohaku which had private rooms and a pretty good selection of meats. This was a meal that satisfied a craving but certainly not the best Yakiniku we've had, not bad not great, just good.



After finishing the meal we headed back to the hotel via the mandatory 7/11 stop for dessert. It was still snowing at this stage so was shaping up to be another good day ahead!